In more ways than one, Saturday will be a good day for books and
readers.
Morgan Hill – In more ways than one, Saturday will be a good day for books and readers.
Not only will the last Harry Potter book be released, but Morgan Hill Library users – who for years made do with cramped quarters – will celebrate the opening of their new 28,000-square-foot building at 660 W. Main Ave., with a chance to win a free copy.
An opening-day costume contest where patrons are asked to come dressed as their favorite fictional characters will result in one lucky winner walking away reading about wizards, muggles and Harry’s last year at Hogwarts.
It boils down to a “magical” day for book lovers, said Morgan Hill Library, Culture and Arts Commissioner Emily Shem-Tov. “Probably the only thing that could keep me from spending the day reading Harry Potter is the library’s grand opening,” she laughed, adding she proudly volunteered to work at the library’s all-day party, which marks the end of more than a decade’s worth of planning.
The celebration for the natural light-filled building will begin at 11am with a performance by the Sandoshin Taiko drummers.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony follows at 11:30am with speeches by elected officials and other leaders.
Activities will include face painting, bilingual performances by Germar the Magician and behind-the-scenes tours of the building’s technologies, such as a conveyor-belt system that scans and sorts materials as they are returned.
Financed by the Morgan Hill Redevelopment Agency, the $19-million structure is double the size of the old Peak Avenue library that opened in 1973 and closed June 9. The community outgrew the old building, where long lines to use computer terminals had become as common during busy afternoons as people sitting on the floor for lack of table space.
“In the old building, we couldn’t move,” said librarian Rosanne Macek. “There were no places to sit, books overflowed from the shelves and we had long waiting lists to use the Internet.”
The new building will eliminate some of those waits, Macek said, with 50 Internet terminals instead of 25. Four automatic checkout machines will speed the circulation line.
Additionally, the building will feature more comfy chairs for relaxing, a dividable meeting room with audio-visual equipment and tables with built-in plugs for laptops. Like many libraries these days, the building will provide free wireless Internet access.
According to numbers supplied by the Santa Clara County Library, which operates the Morgan Hill Library as one of its 10 branches, the old building had become busier than most libraries its size. Last year, the Morgan Hill Library circulated 542,000 items – or 230 checkouts per hour. Libraries in similarly sized cities such as Los Gatos and Monterey circulated 377,000 and 422,600 items, respectively.
Still, it took years of planning to build a larger facility after federal funding for public libraries dwindled in the 1990s. The city applied for state funds twice, unsuccessfully, Macek said.
Finally the Redevelopment Agency, with the Morgan Hill City Council acting as its board of directors, allocated money for the project in the late 1990s.
The library received more help from the community thanks to fundraising campaign organized by the Friends of the Morgan Hill Library that raised $175,000 for artwork, furnishings and library equipment. The grassroots group also made its own $50,000 contribution raised through used book sales, raising the total beyond $225,000.
The money helped purchase a bronze sculpture of a little girl perched on a mushroom, a colorful abstract painting of El Toro Mountain, a free-flowing bench that mimics the shape of the library’s footprint, a hanging metal sculpture depicting leaves and the clear night sky and a wooden wall hanging celebrating the region’s agriculture.
“It’s almost hard to believe we’re already at this point after waiting so long and putting in so much time and effort,” said Carol O’Hare, president of the Friends of the Morgan Hill Library. “It’s a beautiful building, and the Morgan Hill community is going to be very pleased.”
